Saturday, October 12, 2013

365 Comics...284: Uncanny X-Men #1 (2011)

Maybe a bit of a cheat for 365 Comics, as this actually is reprinted in the back of X-Men Season One rather than being an independent comic I read, but at the same time I would normally have skipped it if not for the fact that I was in desperate need of some already-read comics for today's catch-up blitz.

I tend to avoid Marvel's X-Titles, beyond the recently-ended X-Factor, which was able to largely operate outside of the X-brand and with its own unique drive. I find the conceit of most of the X-sphere to be kind of ridiculous when it's placed inside the Marvel Universe as a whole. I like the idea of using "mutants" to explore social and political issues, but in the context of the Marvel Universe where there's hundreds of ways to acquire superpowers and there's heroes aplenty everywhere, to ostracize and vilify mutants seems absurd. I guess that's why, for the most part, the X-books tend to operate in their own little domain of the Marvel Universe and, save for Wolverine and the odd random mutant, the rest don't cross-over much.

This Uncanny relaunch from a few years back is, well, not good. I like Keiron Gillen a lot, but this is perhaps the worst thing I've read of his. The dialogue is just so ... pained, like these characters who shouldn't be talking to one another are being forced to talk to one another. I know Gillen wasn't responsible for it but Colossus being posessed by the spirit of the Juggernaut is perhaps the dumbest thing I've seen in a comic in a long while (and I read a lot of the New 52). That Magneto has barely any presence in the issue is, to me, weird. Magneto should always be the dominant presence in any scene, or when sharing space with Namor, it should be a fight for dominance.

Perhaps the main reason I don't like this is not Gillen's fault, as I'm not the biggest X-Men fan anyway, but, I think I just
realized over reading this and Season One, that I really, really, really do not like Scott Summers... I find him dull. That he's taken up Magneto's cause seems a big twist for him, but at the same time it doesn't make him any more interesting. I think his relationship with Emma Frost, given his previous romantic history, is also interesting, but even with Emma, he's still pretty tiresome. I think the cinematic X-Men's decision to make the love story more Logan and Jane was the right choice because, well, Wolverine is so much cooler than Cyclops.